Glacial
by MissAnoni
Summary: Bella and Alice are best friends. But one's an orphan, and the other's parents are at the top of the social ladder. How will there friendship survive? Rated T for not knowing where this is going. Also for death don't worry, it's not gruesome .
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I wanted to write a story where they had to go to a ball and this came into my head. It just sort of ran away! I hope you enjoy!**

*****DISCLAIMER*** I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN THIS STORY. NO INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. ALL RIGHT GO TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS.**

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As it was my parent's ball, it was required of me to attend. I was told I was allowed to invite _one _friend and _one_ date. My parents said they didn't mind who I brought, as long as they didn't dirty the furniture, dress inappropriately (and by that they meant any outfit under $1000) or embarrass them in any way.

They said as long as they upheld those three things, they didn't mind who came to this party. Of course, what they really meant was 'you'd better bring someone we approve of or else…'

And the very person that defined 'not approved of' in my parents book was my best friend, Alice Brandon.

You see, I'm not like my parents. My father, Charles Frederick Swan and my mother, Renee Elizabeth Swan are regarded as the highest of high society. They are the most respected, most powerful, wealthiest people in our society and I'm expected to continue that title on.

But I don't like it.

Ever since I was little, I've liked very different things to what my parents like.

When I was five, I was playing with my full set of Barbie dolls and I asked my mother for another set of clothes for my dolls. Agreeing to it, my mother took us straight to the most expensive toyshop in town and let me browse the Barbie's section of clothing.

I'd returned to my mother, complaining they didn't have what I needed. The shop assistant knelt down, asking what I was looking for. I tried to explain, but I didn't know how to. Instead I looked around and pointed at the girl standing outside the shop, having a cigarette (although, I didn't know what that was back then) in her rough jeans and screen printed top and said "Something like that please."

My mother was so shocked at my choice, that when we got home (without the Barbie clothes) she ordered the maid to get rid of all of them! My nanny, Matilda Brandon had asked if she could give them to her daughter Alice, saying she was the same age as me and would love them.

Matilda was only 19, having had Alice extremely young and was still living with her parents. Alice stayed with them while Matilda worked here with us. She worked from 12:00 to 7:30 most days, with Sunday's off. The pay wasn't very good, so she couldn't afford things like Barbie dolls.

I'd told her she could have the dolls straight away. My mother on the other hand had said no, as it would be like a pay rise and "not at all fair to the other servants."

Even as young as five I'd thought this was a stupid idea, so when the maid had gone to my room to gather all the dolls, I'd grabbed my favourite one and hidden it in my bed.

That night, when Matilda had come to tuck me into bed, I grabbed the Barbie and gave it to her for Alice.

"I can't take this Bella," she said.

"Why not?"

"Because your mother said I wasn't too."

"Well, I won't tell if you don't," I'd told her.

She'd grinned at me, thanked me and told me Alice would be delighted.

The Barbie I'd given her had long brown hair, just like me and was wearing a purple frilly dress and a big necklace. It was one of the few outfits I'd actually liked on my Barbies.

I'd gone to bed happy that night, happy knowing I'd made someone else feel good.

That had been the first time I'd heard of Alice Brandon. The next day I'd asked Matilda if Alice had liked it. She'd said she'd _loved_ it. So much so, that she wanted to meet me.

It was difficult trying to get my mother to allow me to see Alice. She didn't want a poor child (as Alice was) mixing with me.

Eventually she allowed it. I'd explained to her that it was like when she met people at fancy dinners and things. That Alice would look up to me and respect me. I didn't actually want her to do that, but I knew that my mother would let me see her if I told her that.

So the day came when Alice showed up. She had short, black curly hair. Very different to my long, wavy, chestnut coloured hair.

I'd greeted her at the door, just like my mother had taught me, and led her into my room.

"Wow! You've got a big room!" she exclaimed.

"Not really. Mother's room is bigger."

"Really?" Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

I nodded.

We'd stood in an awkward silence.

"Um, do you have any toys?" Alice asked.

"Of course!"

I took her over to the toy cupboard and pulled out some toys to play with.

"Wow! You've got so many toys!"

I laughed.

It continued like that for the rest of the afternoon, both of us laughing and playing and talking with each other.

"So how many toys do you have?" I asked her.

She got a bit shy. "Um… three."

"Three? Why don't you have more?"

"Mummy can't pay for them," she told me, getting quieter still.

It was a revelation to my little world, that one sentence. I'd always been able to get what I wanted, and when I didn't it was because my mother had told me they weren't appropriate toys to play with. I'd never had any concept of money before, except that bad people had no money and good people had lots.

"Are you poor?" I'd asked her.

"Um… I don't feel poor, but I guess I am."

"But you're good! Good people aren't poor."

"Some good people are," she'd told me.

Looking at her again, I noticed she was wearing clothes I didn't recognise. Unlike my sandals, stockings, purple skirt and flowered purple top, Alice was wearing some jeans - an item of clothing that only my father ever wore - and a t-shirt with running shoes on.

My hair was pulled back from my face in fancy French braid that took an hour to do this morning. Alice's had a cheap clip in it. I didn't understand, Alice was really nice, but she didn't have very much money. It was all confusing me. Either, mother was wrong or Alice wasn't nice.

But Alice seemed nice to me.

It had been in that moment that I'd realised parents weren't always right. And that money didn't really mean anything.

I was only five, but my views on the world had already changed.

After that Alice had become a constant in my life, Matilda brought her in as much as possible. Alice grew up a normal, happy little girl.

Until Matilda died.

Matilda had been told she had cancer, and her condition had been deteriorating prior to her death. Alice knew that she had cancer, but I don't think she had quite grasped how real the situation was. She was only 9, after all.

My mother knew what it meant, and when Matilda had to go to hospital for chemo, my mother had begrudgingly allowed Alice to stay at our house during the day while her grandparents stayed with her mom at the hospital.

One day, Alice was called into the hospital to see her mom. Naturally I'd gone with her. Even if my mother didn't approve, she wouldn't stop me doing this. It meant too much to me.

"Alice," Matilda rasped. The cancer had gotten much worse in the past few days. "Alice, you must promise me something."

"Anything Mom," she'd replied, her eyes glistening.

"Promise me…promise me you and…Bella stay friends." Her breathing was really heavy and I could tell it was scaring Alice. "Promise you…stay…close."

"I promise Mom," Alice assured, a tear escaping her cheek.

"I love you Ali," whispered Matilda.

"I love you Mom." Alice was sobbing now.

Mr. and Mrs. Brandon came in to lead her out of the room.

That afternoon, Matilda Brandon was declared dead.

Alice lived with her grandparents from then and we stayed extremely close to each other, just as she'd promised.

We'd gone to different middle schools, her to the public school, ten minutes from her house. Me, to the most expensive school that took a one hour drive every morning.

It was at the end of middle school when Alice's life took another, unexpected turn.

On the way to Alice's middle school graduation, her grandparent's car crashed into another, killing them. They never saw her graduate.

Just getting over the loss of her mother, Alice now had to deal with another, brutal loss.

She got bumped from foster home to foster home, but no one really wanted a teenage girl.

I'd asked my mother if we could adopt her. She'd immediately responded with an absolute no.

When we were started high school, we talked a lot. She'd gotten herself a job and was paying for her own mobile phone plan, just so she could talk to me. We texted all the time.

My mother had bought me a blackberry when I'd gotten my phone plan. I'd bought a cover off the Internet with my credit card, so it now was yellow with exotic birds on it.

High school was hard for Alice. Being a weird, freaky kid with no parents and unusual clothes, not many people liked her.

High school for me wasn't too bad. I had a couple of friends that didn't mind hanging out with public school girl and weren't as snobby as the rest of the school. Whenever I was invited to a party, I always asked if I could bring a friend. Most of the time they said yes. If they said no, I just wouldn't go.

But as word got out about Alice and me in the high society community, my parent's reputation started slipping. Not much -they were still on top of the social ladder - but enough for them to notice. They started to try and discourage Alice and I from seeing each other. My curfew had been reduced she wasn't allowed over on school nights – something that had never happened before.

It got so bad, that one time my mother had hired someone to hack into my Facebook account and delete Alice from my friends list. Alice had called me up, very angry, asking me why I'd deleted her from my friends list. Very confused, I'd replied I hadn't. Upon checking my Facebook account I found that I had and immediately suspected my mother. She'd confirmed she had indeed deleted Alice from my friends saying she was a bad influence. We'd had a big fight and I ran away. After that she didn't try to stop us hanging out, she just disapproved of it.

It was worse to have a runaway daughter than to have a daughter the friend of an orphan. Now she claims I do it out of the goodness of my heart and that we aren't really friends, I just pity Alice.

As. If.

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**Okay! So kind of a weird ending, but what did you think??? Please let me know in a review! *v*v*v*v*v***

**Links to Bella's Barbie and phone on my profile!**

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**~MissAnoni**

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	2. Chapter 2

I loved Saturdays. To me, Saturdays were the best days in the world. You see, on Saturdays, Mother and Father were both at work for the entire day and late into the night. Which meant an entire day of doing whatever I liked, which meant hanging out with Alice.

Alice, being what you would call "street smart" often took me to places my parents would never allow. Such as McDonalds, second hand stores and today, a skate park.

Alice had decided to take me to a really popular skate park known as "The Grill". No one actually knows where that name came from though.

We stopped by an ice-cream parlour on the way and bought a two-pint tub of cherry ice cream to share. It was our favourite.

I was relishing in wearing my secret skinny leg jeans and favourite secret tee today. It felt great. I also used a practical tote bag, instead of the silly purses I usually used. My shoes were a practical pair of sneakers. I felt good.

"I can't believe you've never been to a skate park Bella!" Alice was saying for about the 15th time.

"Well, you know I haven't been allowed. I mean, I'm only allowed to the shopping mall if I promise to only buy from a list of stores my mom has written down!"

"Hey, that reminds me. Did you bring your running gear?"

"Uh… damn I forgot it. I'll have to go and buy some." Alice and I had devised a plan last week for me to start "jogging" on Sunday mornings. Which actually meant I'd book a hotel with Alice for me and her to share for a night and then I'd get up early and put on my running gear and pretend I'd been running in the morning. Mom wouldn't really think anything of it.

"I might have to be careful with all this ice-cream." I grinned at Alice. "I don't really want to be getting fatter after weeks of running."

Alice laughed. "Don't worry, I think I read that the hotel has a pool. We'll go swimming!"

We talked for a bit until we got to the Grill.

It was like living art.

The concrete curves and formations were covered in graffiti. Well, it looked more like murals than graffiti, but I guess it was, technically graffiti. There were incredible designs and patterns. I was transfixed for a moment just looking at it. Then I noticed the skaters.

This sounds terrible, but in all truth I was expecting junkies in shaggy clothing. To be fair, there were some junkies in shaggy clothing, but they were sitting behind the skate park.

No, the skaters here were amazing! They were flipping their boards around and doing huge jumps. Grinding along the metal bars and pulling off sharp turns. It was incredible.

There were others here too, people on rollerblades and even one guy on a scooter. Everyone was having fun.

"Oh my gosh Alice, this is incredible!"

Alice's smile widened. "I thought you'd like it."

Just then, a guy spotted Alice and waved at her.

"Oh! That's Jasper. C'mon. I didn't just bring you here to sight see!" Alice grabbed my hand and dragged me down a ramp.

"You didn't?" I questioned her, confused.

I was dragged over to the guy. He was fairly good looking, with a smart attitude about him. Alice was looking at him with, not 'gaga' eyes per se, more…admiration.

"Hey…" she greeted with a grin.

"Hey Pixie," he replied. He had an equal grin on his face.

I cleared my throat and Alice rolled her eyes.

"Bella, that is so cliché."

"What, and rolling your eyes isn't?" I defended.

"Touche."

"Anyway, care to introduce me to your friend?"

Alice's eyes lit up. "Ah yes," she said. "This is Jasper Whitlock. Jasper, this is Bella Swan."

I put out my arm to shake his hand, but he pulled me into a big hug.

"So this is the infamous Miss Swan, huh?"

Alice giggled. "The very one."

I looked at Alice. "Oh no," I said, "what has she told you?"

Jasper laughed. A big, deep laugh.

"Let's go sit down, shall we?" Alice suggested.

We made our way over to a big shady tree where we could see the skaters. I still had the ice-cream in hand.

"Want some?" I asked Jasper, holding out the bucket and a spare spoon we had.

"Hmm… flavour?"

"Cherry."

He grinned again taking the spoon. "My favourite."

We talked to Jasper for while, commenting on the skaters if they did great tricks.

It turned out Jasper went to a school just down the road from me. It sounded like a really great school. Alice and Jasper had met at the skate park while Alice was looking for her dog. This fact I questioned as Alice doesn't have a dog... Raising my eyebrows at her, she replied with a look that said "I'll explain later."

Which she ended up doing. Jasper had to go at 1:00 to go pick up a package from the post office. He gave me a hug goodbye and kissed Alice on the cheek, to which she smiled very widely. He seemed like a nice guy.

I turned to Alice. "Looking for your dog?"

She grinned, still happy from the kiss. "Okay, so I saw him in the mall and followed him here..."

I laughed. "Seriously? I love you!"

After we'd finished the ice-cream at the skate park, Alice and I went to the mall.

This was kind of a tradition of ours. Alice couldn't really afford many things, and I could get whatever I wanted. My parents didn't even care if my credit was $3000, they just paid it. They also NEVER looked into what I bought, which was lucky for me as I bought lot's of stuff I probably shouldn't (well, in my parents eyes at least). When I'd first bought something for her, she'd protested, saying it wasn't fair as she couldn't get me anything nearly as spectacular. I'd told her to shut up and take it as it was making up for my parents horrible attitudes towards her. She'd never objected again.

We walked into the mall, but we'd been in all these stores last week and there really wasn't anything new in any of them. I sighed.

Alice was on the same thought track as me. "There's nothing new!" she complained.

"Why don't we go to another mall?" I suggested.

"Alright... Wait no! I have a better idea! Let's go dress shopping!" She looked at me like a 7 year old on Christmas morning.

"Okay... My mother mentioned a dress shop that was appropriate across town."

Alice agreed so we caught a taxi (another thing Alice had introduced me to) across town to La Petite Mademoiselle.

We hated the place. The dresses were old fashioned (as in, 1980's, not 1880's) and horrible. I couldn't believe my mother thought this place had style!

We quickly left.

"Okay," said Alice emerging from the shop, "that was a waste of time."

"Yes," I agreed. "It certainly was."

"So what are we going to do now?"

I looked at Alice. "Well, I still need to get those running clothes for tomorrow. Why don't we go back to the mall, buy them and then go to the hotel?"

"Sounds good to me!" she agreed cheerfully.

After we'd done the shopping, we checked in at the hotel. I was paying for unlimited internet access while we were staying here, so once we were up in our room I got out my laptop and quickly was connected to the wireless internet available.

"Oh my god! IDEA!" Alice screamed.

"Don't hurt yourself," I cautioned.

"Ha ha," Alice said sarcastically. "Why don't we get period clothing from the 18th century?"

I wasn't convinced. "What do you mean?"

"Like, order some custom made dresses in the style of 18th Century France or something?" explained Alice

"What? Like with corsets?"

"Yeah! And wide waists and curly wigs!"

"That would be awesome! And my parents couldn't complain, because it would be 'suitable'. But where would we get it from?"

"I don't know... some costuming place I guess." Alice looked doubtful.

"I know the perfect one." I said.


End file.
